Weekly Newsletter: Setting Fitness Goals & Other Updates
By now, you are done with your new year greetings. The beginning of year buoyancy is slowly ebbing away and your social media feeds are flooded with new year resolutions. Last year, you did not meet your fitness goals. Took a little too many rest days, traded your kale smoothie for an ice-cream, ended up watching far too many workout videos instead of actually working out. Let bygones be bygones. It’s time to reset your goals and we have got your back. Let’s start 2021 with the powerful Nina Simone song, “It’s a new dawn, it’s a new day, it’s a new life for me, and I’m feeling good.”
Here are this week’s updates:
Challenge Yourself
One thing is certain, we don’t want another year of “new normal”. But running is one sport that allows you to be flexible and lets you be in complete control of your goals and targets. Running coach Tom Craggs shares tips on how to keep yourself motivated this year. For example: “Aim to run 50 per cent of your monthly miles away from unforgiving asphalt. Getting offroad can not only help reduce some of the impact of running, it also means you’ll be running in more beautiful places, with better air quality. And traffic should not be an issue; if it is, something is very wrong.”
Full article on Runner’s World
Fitness Goals
The hard part is not setting resolutions, but keeping them. According to a study, “approach-oriented New Year’s resolutions had a higher success rate than avoidance-oriented resolutions”. What does it mean? Adding Pilates to your workout regime and sticking to this plan will be easier than cutting out caffeine completely. Talking about the difference between resolutions and goals, a Delhi-based psychologist tells Mint Lounge, “A resolution is the firm decision to do or not to do something… On the other hand, a goal is an object of a person’s ambition or target that involves planning and preparing.”
More on how to set successful fitness goals
Open Goals
Taking the discourse on goal setting a little further, the Conversation suggests setting open goals that are “non-specific and exploratory”. The problem with setting specific goals is that you abandon them the minute you start failing. But open goals take away “the trauma of failing”. “The elite athletes who first reported open goals described how they were an important part of experiencing flow — the enjoyable, rewarding state when everything just seems to click into place and we perform well without even needing to think about it.”
Runner’s Wishlist
After living a year that made us change all our plans, we are in the mood to set new goals. We enter the new year with the existing uncertainty, we know that race dates cannot be finalised, and that it’s too early to make plans. Instead, we are coming up with a runner’s wishlist with the hope of a healthier and happier future. May 2021 be the year that bucket list goals are achieved!
Finisher Magazine has the full list
Yoga For Healthy Thyroid
Of the eight major endocrine glands, the thyroid is one of the largest and most crucial, responsible for releasing hormones that regulate metabolism, growth, energy usage, body temperature apart from other crucial aspects. Owing to stress, unhealthy food habits, genetics or lifestyle choices, many of us are prone to thyroid malfunction. Yoga can act as an effective preventative therapy for thyroid illness. All the 84 basic postures and different breathing techniques help stimulate endocrinal activity and reduce stress by calming down the nervous system. If practised consistently, yogic practices can also be a supportive therapy in managing an existing thyroid condition.
Yoga postures for healthy thyroid
6 Exercises To Help You Run Faster
To be a better runner, there are two important aspects that you need to focus on: 1. Giving your body a break from running daily 2. Strength training. Strength training focuses on muscles that support running, and aims at building better balance, flexibility and endurance. Strength training is responsible for correcting posture, conditioning and strengthening the core, and improving overall performance. A few weeks at the gym, and you’ll notice the difference in your runs. Here are six exercises that will transform your running.
Racing With Ostriches
Dubai’s crown prince Sheikh Hamdan bin Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum had an unusual start to his new year. While cycling with other bikers, he ended in a close race with ostriches. Watch the video:
